Quantum Theory Group



Group meetings: Fridays, 3:30 pm @ ARC-460


Introduction

The Quantum Theory group works to develop theoretical and computational tools enabling the design and understanding of advanced materials, developing new quantum functionalities of materials by nanoscale and molecular engineering and translating these functionalities into quantum devices. These devices include new quantum circuits based on graphene and other 2D crystals, low-power and quantum electronics based on electron spin, photonic devices for secure quantum communication, improved solar energy harvesting and sensing at the single atom, electron, photon and spin level. We are particularly interested in designing emerging properties of materials at the many body level - properties of material which cannot be inferred from the properties of its constituents.


Selected recent news


  • Majorana excitons in a Kitaev chain of semiconductor quantum dots in a nanowire
  • Theory of Excitons in Gated Bilayer Graphene Quantum Dots
  • Spin-valley qubits in gated quantum dots in a single layer of transition metal dichalcogenides
  • Valley and spin polarized broken symmetry states of interacting electrons in gated MoS2 quantum dots
  • Continuous-wave lasing in colloidal quantum dot solids enabled by facet-selective epitaxy WS2

    • Selected recent projects


  • Electron spin based Quantum Circuits in 2D materials


    • Electronic structure codes and access to HPC facilities













    • QNANO : TB + CI. In-house computational platform to model million-atom nanostructures.

    • PyMPS : MPS-DMRG. In-house computational code to compute the ground state of a many-body system.

    • Abinit : DFT, TDDFT, GW. Plane waves (PW) + pseudopotentials.

    • Octopus : DFT, TDDFT, Ehrenfest dynamics. Real-space + pseudopotentials.

    • Fleur : DFT, TDDTF, GW. Full potential linearized augmented PW (FP-LAPW).

    • ELK : DFT, TDDFT. Full potential linearized augmented PW (FP-LAPW).

    • CP2K : DFT, TDDFT, Molecular dynamics. Gaussian and PW approaches.

    • Gamess : HF, DFT & TDDFT, CI, CC-SD, MRPT. Gaussian type orbitals.



    The group operates a local Linux cluster named Zeus and Hercules with the standard compilers and scientific libraries required by the latter programs. Access to advanced research computing facilities is supported by Digital Research Alliance of Canada .


    Group members

    Open positions : Postdoctoral Fellows and prospective graduate students interested in working in the Quantum Theory Group are asked to contact Prof. Hawrylak directly. Young scientists from Germany may qualify for Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship . Please, for further inquires contact Prof. Pawel Hawrylak.



    Dr. Pawel Hawrylak
    Group Leader
     Professor of Physics,
    University Research Chair in Quantum Theory of Materials, Nanostructures and Devices

    PhD, Condensed Matter Theory, University of Kentucky(1984).
    Doctor Honoris Causa, Materials Science, University of Crete(2014).
    Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (2006).
    Fellow, American Physical Society (1996).
    Brockhouse Medal, Canadian Association of Physicists (2002).
    Humboldt Research Prize, Humboldt Foundation, Germany(1999).
    Honorary Professor, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland (2010).
    Professor Titular of Physical Sciences”, President of Poland (2005).
    member of Editorial Board, Solid State Communications, Elsevier
    Contact Pawel
    Personal webpage


    Dr. Daniel Miravet
    Post Doctoral Fellow
    Electronic and optical properties of 2D materials
    Contact Daniel
    Personal webpage


    Dr. Hassan Allami
    Post Doctoral Fellow
    Topological qubits in nano systems
    Applied quantum computing
    Contact Hassan
    Personal webpage


    Dr. Ludmila Szulakowska
    Post Doctoral Fellow
    Optical properties and electron-electron interactions
    in 2D materials
    Machine learning for physics
    Contact Ludmila
    Personal webpage


    Alina Wania Rodrigues
    PhD student, University of Ottawa
    Electronic and optical properties of 2D materials
    Contact Alina
    Personal webpage


    Katarzyna Sadecka
    Exchange PhD student, Wrocław University of Science and Technology / University of Ottawa
    Electronic and optical properties of 2D materials
    Contact Katarzyna
    Personal webpage


    Matthew Joseph Hong Albert
    M.Sc. Student, University of Ottawa
    Singlet triplet fission in bilayer graphene
    Electronic and optical properties of gated bilayer graphene
    Contact Matthew
    Personal webpage


    Group Visitors



    Dr. Marek Korkusinski
    PhD, Condensed Matter Theory, University of Ottawa(2004)
    Senior Research Officer, SDT, Emerging Technologies, NRC
    Visiting scientist, University of Ottawa

    QNANO – computational platform for the electronic and optical properties of million atom semiconductor and graphene nanostructures

    Security and Disruptive Technologies
    National Research Council of Canada
    1200 Montreal Rd, Bldg. M50, Office 105
    Contact Marek
    Personal webpage


    Dr. Maciej Bieniek
    Postdoc, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland
    Contact Maciej
    Personal webpage


    Dr. Lo, Ping-Yuan (羅炳蒝)
    Independent Research Fellow, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University
    Condensed Matter Theory
    Contact Dr. Lo, Ping-Yuan
    Personal webpage


    Past Quantum Theory Group Members


    • Research Associates and Visiting Faculty
      • - Brandon van Zyl (2001), now Associate Professor at the St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia,
        bvanzyl@stfx.ca
      • - Jordan Kyriakidis (2001-2002), now Professor at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
        jordan.kyriakidis@dal.ca
      • - Shun-Jen Cheng (2002-2003), now Associate Professor at the National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan,
        sjcheng@mail.nctu.edu.tw
      • - Weidong Sheng (2003-2006), now Professor at the Fudan University, Shanghai,
        shengw@fudan.edu.cn
      • - Marian Florescu (2002-2003), now Assistant Professor at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom,
        florescu@surrey.ac.uk
      • - Ramin Abolfath (2003-2006), now Research Associate at Yale University, USA
        mohammad.Abolfath@YNHH.org
      • - Fanyao Qu (2004-2005), now Professor at the Brasilia University, Brasilia, Brasil,
        fanyao@fis.unb.br
      • - Marek Korkusinski (2004-2005), now Staff Member at the IMS NRC,
        marek.korkusinski@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
      • - Yun-Pil Shim (2006-2009), now Research Associate at LPS University of Maryland, USA
        yshim4@wisc.edu
      • - Michal Zielinski (2006-2009), now Assistant Professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland,
        mzielin@fizyka.umk.pl
      • - Fernando Delgado (2006-2008), now Research Associate at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Braga, Portugal,
        ferrni33c@yahoo.es
      • - Evgueni Kadantsev (2008-2010), now software engineer, Industry, Ottawa
        ekadants@uottawa.ca
      • - Anand Sharma (2008-2010), now Research Associate, University of Frankfurt, Germany
        Anand.Sharma@uvm.edu
      • - Oleksandr Voznyy (2008-2010), now Principal Scientist, Computational Materials Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada,
        ovoznyy@gmail.com
      • - Devrim Guclu (2008-2012), now Associate Professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey
        devrimguclu@iyte.edu.tr
      • - Alain Delgado Gran (2015-2018), now Senior Quantum Scientist at Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., Toronto, Canada,
        nanoalain@gmail.com
      • - Moritz Cygorek (2019-2020), now PDF, Herriot-Watt University
        mo_cygorek@gmx.de
      • - Brian Kennedy, President, Kennedy Labs Inc.
        brian.kennedy579@gmail.com
      • - Agnieskza Jamróz (2019), PhD Student, University of Warsaw
        agnieszka.jamroz@student.uw.edu.pl
      • -Amintor Dusko (2019-2021), now Quantum Software Devloper, Xanadu
        amintor.dusko@gmail.com
      • -A. Altintas (2020-2022)
    • Graduate Students
      • - Ludmila Szulakowska - PhD (Ottawa), now Post Doctoral Fellow at University of British Columbia
      • - Arkadiusz Wojs - PhD 1996 (Wroclaw), now full Professor, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
      • - Luis A. Rego - PhD 1998 (Campinas), now Professor, Santa Catarina University, Florianopolis, Brazil
      • - Gustavo A. Narvaez - PhD 2000 (Campinas), now Patent Officer, Atlanta, USA
      • - Andreas Wensauer - PhD 2003 (Regensburg), now at Nuclear Energy Company, Ulm, Germany
      • - Marek Korkusinski - PhD 2004 (Ottawa), now Staff Member at the Quantum Theory Group, NRC
      • - Wojciech Dybalski, graduate student (2003-2004), now Group Leader, Emmy Noether Program, Zentrum fur Mathemtics, Technische Universität München, Germany.
      • - Irene Puerto Gimenez - PhD 2009 (La Laguna), now PDF at the European Astrophysics Institute, LaLaguna, Spain.
      • - Pawel Potasz - PhD 2012 (Wroclaw - Ottawa), now Assistant Professor, Wroclaw University of Technology.
      • - Kim Hsieh - PhD 2012 (Ottawa), now Research Associate, MIT-USingapore
      • - Anna Halina Trojnar - PhD 2013 (Ottawa), now Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Ottawa
      • - Milos Vladisavljevic - M.Sc 2014 (Ottawa)
      • - Isil Ozfidan - Ph.D. 2015 (Ottawa), now Postdoctoral Research at the University of Alberta.
      • - Nick Rogers - M.Sc. 2015 (Ottawa).
      • - Julien Thibert-Leduc - M.Sc. 2015 (Ottawa).
      • - Błażej Jaworowski –Exchange PhD student 2014 - 2019 2014-2019 (Wroclaw-Ottawa)- Scholarship National Science Center Poland - now PDF at MPI-PKS Dresden
      • - A. Dusko –PhD 2014 - 2017 (uRio de Janeiro-uOttawa)-1 year CAPES scholarship in Ottawa, now PDF, uFluminense, Rio de Janeiro.
      • - S. Mekonnen – PhD 2016 (visiting student, uAdisAbaba)-scholarship Ethiopian Government – now Asst.Prof. Arbaminch University Ethiopia.
      • - S. Getachev – PhD 2016 (visiting student, uAdisAbaba)-scholarship Ethiopian Government.
      • - W. Hadadi – Msc 2018
      • - David Gayowsky - M.Sc. 2022 (Ottawa), now Ph.D. student at the University of Ottawa with Isaac Tamblyn (CLEAN).
      • - Yasser Saleem - Ph.D. 2022 (Ottawa), now Post Doctoral Fellow at Universität Hamburg.
      • - Jacob Manalo - Ph.D. 2023 (Ottawa), now Quantum Engineer at Multiverse Computing in Toronto, Ontario.
      • - Mahan Ghafour Mohseni - Ph.D. 2023 (Ottawa), now Ph.D. student at the University of Ottawa with prof. S. Czischek.
      • - Benjamin Puzantian - M.Sc. 2023 (Ottawa), now Ph.D. student in Ionizing Radiation Health Science Division, Health Canada, Government of Canada.
    • Undergraduate Students
      • P.Wilson, L.Lamoureux, J. Cieniak, S. Guindon, G. Greer, R. Cheriton, A.Rene, A. Forte, J. Thibert-Leduc, L. Najera Baldo, M-A. Geoffrion-Lockhead.


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